DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

抹黑

Mandarin · pinyin mǒ hēi

to discredit
to defame
to smear sb's name
to bring shame upon (oneself or one's family etc)
to blacken (e.g. commando's face for camouflage)
to black out or obliterate (e.g. censored words)

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Characters in this entry

抹: mǒ · smear, apply, wipe off, erase
黑: hēi · black; dark; evil, sinister; Kangxi radical 203

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · mo3 hei1

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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mut3 hak1

Cantonese word readings for 抹黑. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

verb

(transitive) to discredit; to defame; to blacken (something's reputation)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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